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                                   QUEST FOR ASIA

                        The Conquests of Alexander the Great
                                      Version 3.1                          

                             A scenario for Civilization II

                                   By Stefan Hrtel

                                 intaphernes@yahoo.com

                    http://www.alexanderthegreat.de/civ2/Index.html

                      


                                      CONTENTS

				   Changes from version 3.0
                                   Installation
                                   Historical Background
                                   Designer's Notes
                                   The Players
                                   Rules and Victory Conditions
                                   Units
                                   Other
                                   Credits
                                   Bibliography
                                   Feedback


I. CHANGES FROM VERSION 3.1

Gameplay-wise, nothing has changed except for the fact that a spelling error in the events file has been corrected which now allows Spitamenes to appear after the fall of Bactra, and the fact that there are no negotiations anymore.
fairline has created a huge set of new graphics for this scenario! I advise you to play the scenario with this set instead of the standard one. I included fairline's graphics in a sepparate *.zip archive with this scenario.
I also corrected a few spelling and language mistakes.

I. INSTALLATION

I can only guarantee you that this scenario will work with
Fantastic Worlds. I cannot guarantee you that it works with MGE/UCC. It will not work with CiC or lower versions. 
Create a folder under the Scenario directory, call it "Alex" or whatever, and move all the unzipped files in.
Other versions of Civ2 use other file destinations. If you have the French or German version of Civ2, you must rename all the .txt files into .Fre and .Ger to play this scenario properly.
I strongly suggest you play this scenario with fairline's new set of graphics, which is included in a sepparate *.zip file.

II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

During the mid-4th century BC, Philipp II, king of Macedonia, began a series of wars which would eventually lead to the occupation of the entire Greek mainland. Having defeated the allied Athenian and Theban forces at Chaeronea in 338 BC, he presented himself as the rightful hegemon, the ruler of Greece, and mobilized forces to invade the vast Persian empire and occupy all Greek areas in their posession. Before he could start the war, he was murdered (337 BC) and his son, Alexander, needed two further years to stabilize his grip on the cities and countries formerly loyal to his father. Then, in 334 BC, he used the same methods as his father to get the Greeks into an invasion of Persia; in spring 334 BC finally the Macedonian and Greek armies set foot on the shore of Asia Minor. Having defeated the Persians at the Granicus river (334 BC), Issus (333 BC) and Gaugamela (331 BC) and successfully besieging resistant cities such as Halicarnassus and Tyre, Alexander enterred the Persian mainlands as both a conqueror and a ruler; he put himself into the tradition of the Great Kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, which had ruled Persia before. Alexander then heavily struggled to bring Central Asia under his control and open the way to the legendary land of India. Here, he defeated the king Porus, and brought most of the Indus Valley territory under his control. Although Alexander's aim was to go on further to the Ganges territory, his soldiers refused, and forced him to return to Babylon. Here, he died at the age of barely 33 (323 BC).

III. DESIGNER'S NOTES

One of my earliest scenarios, "Quest for Asia" dates back from '98. To my dissapointment, there has been no attempt whatsoever to create a new scenario about Alexander the Great using the 'more modern' techniques discovered or advanced by the people of the internet Civ2 community. In the list of my scenarios, in which obviously the Persian subject dominates, I found my recent version of "Quest" to be antiquated and barely representative. Not even in the time it was made it could be, IMHO counted to the top-notch of Civ2 scenarios. I'm not saying that this is going to be a good or great scenario; such assessements would be influenced by my own subjective point of view. Fair judgement of the quality of this scenario is to be made by those who play it.
To some, the selection of civilizations in this scenario might be surprising, or even a little strange. The Macedonians, Persians and Indians were obvious choices, the Greeks at least understandable. The Taxilans represent the only powerful Indian state that immediately surrendered to Alexander, although here, they're at war from the beginning on. I included the Bactrians because in many ways, they differed dramatically from the Persians. The Bactrians also stand for different nomad tribes such as the Sogdians or Margianans; they are too important to be reduced for the Barbarian player, but I did not want to give their abilities to the Persians either. The civ named "Oikumene" (Greek for "world") is the "Mother nature" civ included with some other scenarios. They have no active impact on the scenario, but should make life a bit tougher for the Macedonians at later stages.

IV. THE PLAYERS

All seven civilizations are in the game. Criterias of the choice of tribes are to be read in the above section.
Following the historical course, the game was designed to be played primarly as the Macedonians. Stupid AI behaviour would definately disturb the enjoyability with the Persians and entirely ruin the game for the Bactrians, Taxilans or Indians. The Independents are not equipped with the vital capabilities to start a series of conquests all by themselves, and this is what the game is about. When choosing your player, please completely ignore the one named "Oikumene". This one is included for game mechanics only.

V. RULES AND VICTORY CONDITIONS

As mentioned above, this scenario is thought to be entirely about conquest. You will not really get anywhere if you settle down peacefully and build up your empire; this would be fairly easy. Your goal is to conquer the entire known and unknown world that lies ahead of you.
Obviously, scoring is set in the objectives system. There are 88 objectives in total, WoWs count as such. The Macedonians are set as the protagonists. Scoring works as follows:

               4 Objectives or less is a decisive defeat
              16 Objectives is a marginal defeat
              45 Objectives is a marginal victory
              85 Objectives is a decisive victory.

The Macedonians start out with four objectives. They need to get the Persian-controlled Greek cities under their control for a marginal defeat. The Greek cities are mostly large and rich coastal cities. You will notice most of them by Greek-styled units placed inside. Everything up to Pasargadai in the Persian mainland is counted for a marginal victory. This roughly corresponds with the objective the Macedonians went with. You will have to look carefully for some cities, so send out your prodromoi (scouts) everywhere to make sure you haven't missed a city.
The easiest way obviously to get a decisive victory is by conquering the whole world (except for the city of the Oikumene, which can never be taken). Given the fact that the cities are widely spread an toughly defended, infrastructure is poorly developed, especially in the east, and locals, terrain and nature are likely to play the one or other trick to you, I'd say it will not be a cakewalk. The Macedonian government type is the Republic, dubbed monarchy. This government form is particularly unsuitable for larger empires, and is fairly accurate in the representation of Alexander's empire: whenever the king turned his back to a province, it was likely to revolt against him. You may choose to move your capital later in the game. Be careful with this. Perhaps such cities as Susa, Babylon or Persepolis will be the best choices, as in reality, as they are placed in central positions. One further word: Alexander was a poor king when he started his campaign, and had -according to Plutarch- 200 talents minus. Your situation isn't much better.

VI. UNITS

The Macedonians, if something, have a good variety of units. Some of them can be upgraded. The most important of these are the Trireme, and the Phalanx. With time, you can also develop new units, although the techs prerequisites may not be available from the start. 
During your campaign, you will encounter with many units, which you might somehow recognize from one or more of my previous scenarios. Don't let your feelings misguide you. Even if they have the same names and -or at least similar- icons, their stats and general abilites differ dramatically. 
There are some unique units in this scenario. The only ones relevant of mentioning here are the Macedonians. Adding an "Alexander" unit was obvious. Further, there is one unit to represent his personal bodyguards, named "Somatophylakes". Parmenion, Alexander's most important general, is also present. Further, there are some elite cavalry units named "Hetairoi". These are the 'official' royal Macedonian guards. They are very powerful, though not invincible, and, more painfully, irreplacable. Be careful with them.
I will not write a structurization of your opponent's army here. They unfortunately also don't show up in the Civilopedia. This may be better so. 

VII. OTHER

WoW's, however, show up in the pedia, so I won't list them here. They don't count as objectives, there aren't all possible wonders in the game, and not all are built yet. One word is said though, I only included those WoW's I held for game-improving for the one or other side, and many will go obsolete at certain occasions.
The city improvements will as well be easy to recognize, IMHO.
As most other things show up in the Pedia as well, I won't say much more. However, there are some 'terrains' which may stand against you. These can be found in deserts and mountains. They aren't invincible -no siree!- and you will defeat them, I am sure. However, once you are out of the horror, you will see what good old mother nature has done to you...
The Title picture shows the destruction of Persepolis by Alexander.

VIII. CREDITS

As I rushed release of this scenario there wasn't much playtesting going on. Still I would like those guys who sent some comments anyway: Az, Sun Tzu, Tirant lo Blanc, and History_Buff. I would like to note that playtesting still goes on, and thus maybe some things may not be entirely done yet. Thus, I'd also like you to be patient. If you have any comments, please tell me.
I'd also like to thank the people who commented on the Apolyton and Civfanatics forums.
Credit goes to Allard Hfelt, Mike Daumen, John Elis, Paul Cullivan, and Harlan Thompson for the graphics. HT also compiled the Units and Icons collections from which I once again benefited greatly. I still don't know who made this wonderful terrain compilation, but once again, thank you.
Most of the new sounds have been taken from the game "The great battles of Alexander" by TOPOS. 
It could well be that I have forgotten the one or other thing, as I lost some data during the production of this scenario. If you find anything here, please mail me.

A very special thanks goes to Gareth Birch (fairline) for creating a new set of graphics for this scenario. It is incredible work, and I advise you to play with it instead of the standard graphics created for this scenario.

IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY

This scenario is based on the truly wonderful book "Der Traum vom Frieden der Vlker, Alexander der Grosse" by S. Fischer-Fabian. Further information derives from so many different books and other sources that I will only list the most important ones here:
H.J. Gehrke, "Alexander der Grosse"
R. Ghirshman, "Iran, from the Earliest times to the Islamic Conquest"
J. Wiesehfer, "Das antike Persien"
H. Koch, "Es kndet Dareios, der Knig..."
P. Briant, "Alexandre le Grand"

X. FEEDBACK

For comments, critics suggestion etc., you can mail me at: intaphernes@yahoo.com
The URL of my homepage is intaphernes@yahoo.com
You can also post something on Apolyton's SLeague, or Civfanatic's Scenario Creation forums.